Mumbai Indians score 159/9 against RCB in IPL opener
Chennai, Apr 9: Harshal Patel produced a death over masterclass with a five-wicket haul as Mumbai Indians achieved a par score of 159 for nine against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL opener here on Friday.
Harshal picked up 5 for 27 in his four overs and was brilliant at the death as he became the first player to get a five-for against Mumbai Indians.
Reserve opener Chris Lynn (49 off 35 balls) partially made amends for his part in a horrible mix-up that led to skipper Rohit Sharma's (19 off 15 balls) run-out, by adding 70 runs in seven overs for second wicket with Suryakumar Yadav (31 off 23 balls).
That stand was the platform that MI needed to fire during the back-end.
Fresh from his exploits for India, Ishan Kishan blazed his way to 28 off 19 balls but Harshal got a few wickets in the final over to prevent MI from inflicting bigger damage.
On a Chepauk track where a good score is anything in the region of 150, the total was certainly par for the course.
Kyle Jamieson (1/27 in 4 overs) had an impressive IPL debut with his disconcerting bounce but the seasoned Yuzvendra Chahal (0/41 in 4 overs) has clearly lost his bearings for some time now.
But Harshal, Chahal's Haryana teammate made it up with some accurate wicket-to-wicket bowling in the 18th and 20th over.
Lynn, who looked shaky during the first few overs, stepped out to loft Chahal for a six over long-on and another over wide of long-on off left arm spinner Shahbaz Ahmed to get his rhythm back.
This was after he called Rohit for a non-existent single and then sent him back, only to find the skipper yards short of his ground.
Suryakumar (31 off 23 balls), at the other end, took off from where he left against England as he clipped Jamieson for a boundary, punched Chahal through covers off the back foot and then back-cut Dan Christian for another four.
The pitch that looked slow during the first four overs went out of the equation as runs came at a fair clip. The 50 partnership for the second wicket came off 27 balls.
The shot of the innings was Suryakumar's effortless clip over deep mid-wicket for a six off Jamieson. But the giant Black Cap got his first IPL wicket when the extra bounce produced by his 6 feet 8 inch frame had the Indian edging one behind the stumps.
Washington Sundar was brought as late as the 13th over and while Lynn made a statement with a straight boundary, the slowness did get to him with the ball stopping before he could execute the lofted shot.
Washington took a brilliant catch running backwards, preventing Lynn from scoring a half-century before Quinton de Kock comes back to take his place after serving his hard quarantine.
Brief scores:
Mumbai Indians: 159/9 in 20 overs (Chris Lynn 49, Suryakumar Yadav 31; Harshal Patel 5/27).
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
